Washington, D.C. -- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission)
announced today that it will conduct a public meeting on Tuesday,
December 19, 1995 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. to discuss the current
prohibition on the offer or sale of "trade options" on certain
agricultural commodities. The meeting will be held in the
Commission's hearing room located at Room 1000, Lobby Level, Three
Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.

"Trade options" are commodity options which are offered to a
producer, processor, or commercial user of, or a merchant handling, the
commodity which is the subject of the commodity option transaction and
that are entered into solely for purposes related to its business. Trade
options may be offered off-exchange, and, under Commission Rule 32.4, are
otherwise exempt from Commission regulation (other than rules forbidding
unlawful representations and fraud). However, this exemption for trade
options does not apply to options on certain domestic agricultural
commodities including, among others, wheat, cotton, rice, corn, oats,
soybeans and soybean derivatives, livestock and frozen concentrated
orange juice. Trade options on these domestic agricultural commodities
are prohibited.

This roundtable discussion is intended to bring together a diverse group
of commodity option and agricultural experts, regulators, academics and
market users to exchange views regarding the prohibition of agricultural
trade options. In particular, the Commission is interested in discussion
of:

the purposes served by, and benefits of, continuing the prohibition on
agricultural trade options;

the costs entailed by continuing the prohibition;

the purposes of, and possible benefits to be derived from, lifting the
prohibition;

the costs entailed in lifting the prohibition;

the possible uses of trade options in the enumerated agricultural
commodities, if permitted;

the possible problems of permitting the offer and sale of such
instruments; and

the possible impact of lifting the prohibition on price discovery and
producers' cash prices.

All individuals or organizations wishing to participate as discussants
are invited to submit a concise statement of interest and qualifications
to the Commission. The Commission will select a cross section of those
interested in participating. In addition, the Commission welcomes written
submissions addressing these issues for inclusion in the Commission's
official record whether or not the submitter participates as a discussant
in the roundtable. Written submissions received by December 13, 1995 will
be made available at the time of the meeting.

The meeting will be open to the public. For further information, contact
the Commission's Office of Public Affairs at (202) 418-5080.